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Eidos has announced that it won't now be releasing the latest edition of Championship Manager in April this year, as previously planned, but will push it back until after the end of its financial year in order to polish the game properly.

That means that the game will now ship some time after June 30, although the company noted that it doesn't expect the decision to impact profitability within that time frame, and that it had "built in conservative expectations for this version of the game to reflect the re-establishment of the franchise," according to a statement.

"Eidos has a total commitment to producing the highest quality games and we believe by moving the release date of Championship Manager we will give the product the additional time needed to deliver a more polished and highly competitive game within the genre," said Phil Rogers, CEO of Eidos.

"We will not compromise on quality and we are confident that this decision is right for consumers and will benefit the continued popularity of this franchise."

Championship Manager was originally developed by Sports Interactive, who split with Eidos to create the Football Manager franchise with Sega. The company brought in ex-EA man Roy Meredith to head up its Beautiful Game Studios team, and he told GamesIndustry.biz last year that while the franchise had lost direction in recent years, the publisher was determined to be a "strong alternative" to the Sega brand.

Eidos is currently in an offer period, with bidder Square Enix enjoying the support of the company's board and several major shareholders.